Pubdate: Mon, 10 Apr 2000
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
Fax: (408) 271-3792
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/

MORE BLACK WOMEN SEARCHED, REPORT SAYS

African-American women returning from abroad were disproportionately
singled out for strip-searches by U.S. Customs Service inspectors at
airports, according to a congressional report scheduled for release
today.

Black women were nearly twice as likely to be strip-searched on
suspicion of smuggling drugs as white men and women, the report by the
congressional General Accounting Office said. Moreover, black women
were three times as likely as African-American men to be
strip-searched. The report follows two years of criticism by minority
women in Chicago and other cities who have complained of ``racial
profiling'' and humiliating treatment by Customs inspectors.
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